From Huddling to Hibernation
Dear readers,
I've got a short-ish update newsletter for you this time. There are updates because there are a few things I want to tell you about. But it's short because I've got post-viral fatigue, so need to carefully prioritise where my energy goes at the moment.
It has been a topsy-turvy few weeks since I last wrote.
I had my now-traditional birthday jam on my birthday eve with some music friends and then spent my birthday morning playing at Sunday Assembly. Here's me being sung happy birthday by the whole congregation (at 1:15:30) followed by a pop punk-esque ending to Karma Chameleon just afterwards.
There have been some more celebrations:
Sieske and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and both our birthdays in September (and today marks 7 years since I officially asked her out by lip-syncing 'Will You Be My Girlfriend?' to you).
Sieske is celebrating fully launching Autumn Animals, her new company offering holistic End of Life care for animals (get the latest on Instagram if that's your jam).
At RESULTS UK, we celebrated Aaron Oxley's 13 years as Executive Director and welcomed in new CEO, Kitty Arie.
For the Transformational Governance project, we launched an expression of interest process for a learning cohort (now closed). It has been fascinating and encouraging to review what has come in. You can sign up to our mailing list for updates.
I promised to share some exciting new work projects last time.
For one of them, I'm supporting a development and climate advocacy hub to ask big questions with an evaluation and theory of change update. E.g. what does useful monitoring, evaluation and learning look like for a systems entrepreneur?
Another is for a security and justice programme in Somalia - to provide facilitation training and a guide for those running a co-creation process. Sadly, I'm no longer flying to Nairobi to deliver the training due to my fatigue, but it's still a wonderful project to be involved in.
Huddlecraft Host Fellowship
The most exciting work and personal update, though, is joining the 2022 Huddlecraft Host Fellowship. I'm a longtime admirer of Huddlecraft as an organisation and their approach to peer-led learning. It has been wonderful to participate in beautifully-facilitated training sessions in the past couple of weeks. The other hosts are inspiring and I love how our different perspectives and energies have been woven together.
For my Huddle, I've chosen a theme that I've been thinking about for a long time - and have written about a bit in this newsletter - and I am glad that I'll be exploring it in this container:
Jamie is planning to host a Huddle for white men who want to contribute to positive change in the world in an equitable way. He’s inviting those with learning questions about the inner work, group practices and global ideas that are needed to move beyond male and white supremacy, building on and recognising the wisdom of women and people of colour.
So just an easy one then! I'm definitely nervous about putting this out there while also believing this is one of the most important things I could be working right now. I'll be honing the idea and how a group will explore it together over the next couple of months. It feels especially important to get the language right, while also recognising that at some point I'll need to take the plunge and start recruiting.
If the Huddle interests you, please do register your interest on this form, reach out to me and/or subscribe to this newsletter.
I also encourage you to look through the what other Hosts will be running - there's so much great stuff in there.
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By the way, the Huddlecraft 101 training is open for applications until October 25th. In their words:
Huddlecraft 101 is a 3 day immersion in how to use peer-led approaches to enrich learning, community, culture and change.
You might be looking to top up your professional practice, apply peer power to a live challenge - or invest in your organisational culture. Huddlecraft 101 will give you the tools and confidence to apply cutting edge peer-led practice in your work.
Post-Viral Fatigue
This feels very raw for me right now. I've spent the last few days realising that I need to slow down to avoid long-term damage. Since returning from Wilderness Festival in early August I've felt fatigue in a different way than ever before. I get tired after even gentle exercise in a disproportionate way. I regularly have headaches or brain fog, even when sleeping well. I can be quite energetic on a call but then have a big slump afterwards. It doesn't work to just grin and bear it - I've got to stop and rest or it just builds.
Thanks to some hard truths delivered just when I needed it, I'm slowly coming to terms with needing to do less in the coming months. I cancelled my trip to Nairobi, pulled out of drumming at Sunday Assembly until Christmas and sold on some gig tickets. I've disclosed my condition to teams I'm working with and have been grateful for the compassionate responses. In all of this I'm reminded of what a privilege it is to be able to have this flexibility and to enjoy the benefit of the doubt in people's response. I’m also very lucky to have a caring wife and a fluffy cat who is delighted when I do slow down. It still feels crap though.
I'm sure there will be a lot of learning for me here. Jocelyn K. Glei's question, "Who are you without the doing?" comes to mind. Even on an afternoon when I'm trying to rest, I've ended up writing this newsletter and created a "To do - Low Energy" list of things to read and watch! Yup, I've got a lot to learn about how to rest and to value myself beyond productivity - which is all tied up in capitalism, patriarchy and much more.
Part of my reason for writing this newsletter today is to give myself permission to not write another one for a while - maybe not until the beginning of next year. So please be patient with me as this newsletter goes into early hibernation.
Speaking about rituals
I'm doing something unusual for me this coming Thursday at 2pm. I'm taking off my facilitator's hat and replacing it with a speaker's hat to talk about rituals for one of Brink's Collective Conversations.
I'll be talking about facilitation, convening, Sunday Assembly, belonging and (co-)designing my own wedding ceremony. And I'm looking forward to hearing from Grace Graham, a practising Nichiren Buddhist and a member of the Unitarian church. Our prep conversations have been full of joy and insight so hopefully we can bring that to the event.
I think there are only a few tickets left so please sign up soon if you want to come along.
Recommended reading
On circadian rhythms and sleep: Life Time - Russell Foster
On trees: The Overstory - Richard Powers
On a love story across time and space: This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (which has the virtue of being much shorter than the others).
And finally...
I was delighted that Snarky Puppy's new album came out just a few days before I saw them at Wembley Arena last week. They've recorded this one with a live audience and the videos are pretty incredible, including this one featuring back-to-back drum solos from their THREE drummers - look out for the behind-the-back trick at 5:40.